A homeless Columbia, SC man is being praised for coming to the rescue of a female police officer who was struggling with a suspect Tuesday.

Cray Turmon was caught on video jumping into the scary situation where the officer had been knocked down after tasing and using pepper spray on the suspect, 39-year-old Donald Songster Brown. Turmon tackled Brown, allowing the officer to handcuff him.

“She’s a woman slammed to the ground and she’s an officer. I saw her belongings hit the ground. She’d done everything she could. It was going to get ugly, you know? Something had to be done,” Turmon told WACH.

He added, “Someone’s got to stand up. Someone told me if you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything. So I stood for something yesterday.”

Turmon is working to get his life together after losing his license, job and home due to DUI arrests.

The Columbia Police Department honored Turmon Wednesday with a certificate for his “extraordinary actions to preserve life and aid public safety.”

“It just felt good to actually have the law pat me on my back,” Turmon said.

Per WLTX, Brown has been charged with attempted murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and resisting arrest.